In recent years, owing to the demands for higher integration degrees and higher operation speeds of LSIs, design rules for semiconductor devices that constitute LSIs are increasingly miniaturized. Along with this trend, much more strict demands are made on countermeasures for preventing metal contamination in manufacturing semiconductor devices. Particularly, in plasma processing apparatuses for processing a target substrate by use of plasma, it is necessary to prepare a sufficient countermeasure for preventing metal contamination, because a metal is used as a material of the vacuum chamber.
In recent years, there has been proposed a plasma processing apparatus of the RLSA (Radial Line Slot Antenna) microwave plasma type (for example, see Patent Document 1), which can realize a low temperature process by plasma having a high plasma density and a low electron temperature. This plasma processing apparatus of the RLSA type can provide plasma having a high density and a low electron temperature along with good plasma uniformity, and thus can perform a process free from damage to the target substrate.
[Patent Document 1]
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-294550